Talk:National Initiative for Democracy/Act
Discussion Philadelphia II and the Electoral Trust eliminated from the National Initiative means changes must be made to the Democracy Act as well. The removal of representative structures governing national initiatives makes the overall structure simpler because a source of asymmetry has been removed : the Democracy Act itself is just one more national initiative, albeit one which recursively specifies the conditions of its own passage. At the same time our creativity is now taxed to provide, or to allow, for the structure necessary to govern the people's national initiatives to arise, like the Democracy Act, from itself. This is a first hack at it. Outline of National Initiative Act *'Section V VERSION' (added) *'Section Su SUMMARY' (added) *'Section Sp SPONSOR(S)' (added) *'Section 1 TITLE' *'Section 2 PREAMBLE' *'Section 3 PROCEDURES' **A. Sponsor **B. Form **C. Content **D. Subject **E. Word Limit **F. Qualification ***1) Citizen Petition (modified) ***2) Public Opinion Poll of Citizens (eliminated) ***3) Legislative Resolution (modified) **G. Withdrawal (eliminated) **H. Public Hearing (eliminated) **I. Deliberative Committee (eliminated) **J. Legislative Advisory Vote (eliminated) **K. Election **L. Enactment **M. Effective Date **N. Judicial Review **O. Promotional Communications **P. Campaign Financing **Q. Financial Disclosure *'Section 4 UNITED STATES ELECTORAL TRUST' (eliminated) *'Section 5 APPROPRIATIONS' *'Section 6 SEVERABILITY' *'Section 7 ENACTMENT BY THE PEOPLE' (eliminated) **A. The Ballot (moved to Section 3, subsection K''' above) **B. The Election (moved to '''Section 3, subsection K''' above) As well there are smaller modifications made throughout the body of the text of the Act. Although the scope of the Democracy Amendment still ensures that the people have the right to legislate within any and every jurisdiction, the scope of the Act is reduced to covering just the jurisdiction of the United States, that is to the national or federal jurisdiction. The sections will be renumbered below. The Democracy Act '''AN ACT establishing legislative procedures to permit the citizens of the United States to exercise their legislative power; and adding to the Federal Code. Be It Enacted By The People Of The United States: Section 1 TITLE This act shall be known and may be cited as the Democracy Act. Section 2 VERSION version 1.1 Section 3 SUMMARY This Act shall be the law instituting the "Legislature of the People." as envisioned in Amendment # of the United States constitution hereinafter referred to as the Democracy Amendment. Section 4 SPONSOR(S) Jim Brauner, Elizabeth Croteau, Maurice Gravel, Whitney Gravel, Don Kemner, Marie Lombardi, Tom Lombardi, James McCrinck, Lloyd Wells, John Francis Lee Section 5 PREAMBLE * We, the People of the United States, inherently possess the sovereign authority and power to govern ourselves. * We declared this power in our Declaration of Independence and in the ratification of our Constitution. * We, the People, choose now to participate as lawmakers in our national government. * We, the People, shall exercise our legislative powers by initiative concurrently with the legislative powers we delegated to our elected representatives. THEREFORE, * We, the People, enact this Democracy Act. Section 6 PROCEDURES A. Sponsor Only the people of the United States as defined is Section 1 of the Democracy Amendment may sponsor an initiative. Sponsoring an initiative will simultaneously effect a person's registration in the appropriate jurisdiction if the sponsor had not previously been so registered. The Sponsor or sponsors shall be identified on the initiative. B. Form An initiative shall comprise a Title, a Version number, a Summary, the name(s) of its Sponsor(s), a Preamble that states the reasons for, and explains why the initiative is proposed, and the complete text of the initiative. C. Content The Sponsor(s) shall determine the Title, Summary, Preamble and the wording of an initiative and together they shall be labeled Version 1.0 and form the content of an initiative to be perfected and enacted by the people at large. Any of the people may modify an initiative and in so doing will submit a copy of the modified initiative together with a suitably modified Version to the Sponsor(s) of the original. A person so modifying an initiative shall add his or her name to the Sponsor(s) and present a duly modified ballot, as specified by subsection F''' below, to the citizens of the United States for their legislative decision. Alternatively the the Sponsors of alternate 'Version's of an initiative, in agreement among themselves, may merge their versions and present a new '''Version superseding the merged versions together with a duly modified ballot to the citizens of the United States for their legislative decision. D. Subject An initiative shall address one subject only, but may include related or mutually dependent parts. F. Qualification The Sponsor(s) of an initiative shall present a ballot to the citizens of the United States for their legislative decision on the enactment of the National Initiative for Democracy by direct contact, mail, print, Internet and/or other media. Regardless of the media through which they are presented and transmitted, all ballots shall specify * the Title, Version, and Summary of the initiative and provide for entry of the following information: * The voter's name. * The date and place of the voter's birth. * The voter's address, including ** street, and street number if there is one, ** city or town, ** postal code, ** county and ** state of residence. * The voter's telephone number, if existent. * The voter's e-mail address, if existent. * A Yes or No vote on the initiative in question. * The date the ballot is executed. * The voter's identification number or other identifier provided by the voter's Registrar. * The physical or electronic signature of the voter. This ballot may be freely copied and reproduced and used by the people to specify their approval or disapproval of the initiative. As stated in the National initiative Amendment it shall henceforth be the duty of the Registrars of voters to tally and store for a period of two years the national initiative ballots presented to them by the voters registered with them and to verify the identities of the voters presenting those ballots and when queried to present the running total of Yes and No votes on any given initiative Title and Version. An initiative may qualify for election if it is signed manually or electronically by one percent (1%) of the people within the US Congressional District of the Sponsor as defined in Section 1 of the Democracy Amendment and filed as set forth above. It is the responsibility of the voter to supply the full text of an initiative of Title and Version at the time of voting if the Registrar is not in possession of same. No signature older than the two year period of its storage as set forth above will be considered valid. G. Election Once an initiative is qualified for election a copy of that initiative will be circulated among all the Registrars in the United States and a second period begun, the initiative's election. The second period shall endure until the initiative is either approved or disapproved by the electorate or for a further two years, whichever event occurs first. Should the second period of two years expire without a decision all signatures will be deemed to have expired and the initiative voided without prejudice. H. Effective Date The effective date of an initiative, if not otherwise specified in the initiative, shall be forty-five days after its enactment. J. Campaign Financing Violation of the prohibitions in Section 4 of the Democracy Amendment is a felony punishable by not more than one year in prison, or a fine not to exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars, or both, per instance, applied to each person found guilty of the violation. K. Financial Disclosure Any and all expenditures made on behalf of or against an initiative must be acknowledged at the time they are made and notice of that ownership kept readily available to any and all the people of the United States who may wish to concern themselves with it. Failure of sponsors, proponents or opponents to comply with these reporting requirements shall be a felony punishable by not more than one year in prison or a fine not to exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars, or both, per instance, applied to each person found guilty of the violation. Section 7 APPROPRIATIONS The People hereby authorize the appropriation of funds from the Treasury of the United States, pursuant to Article I, Section 9(7) of the United States Constitution, to enable the Registrars of voters to perform their duties as described in subsection F''' above. Section 8 SEVERABILITY In the event that any one or more of the provisions of this Act shall for any reason be held to be invalid as a result of judicial action, the remaining provisions of this Act shall be unimpaired. Initiatives undertaken hereafter shall separately state whether their provisions are severable, or they shall not be in the absence of such an explicit statement. Section 9 DEFINITIONS * '''Administer Plan, manage and execute the operations of an organization in accordance with governing policy, organizational regulations and pertinent constitutional and statute law. * Ballot A document listing alternatives to be voted on or questions to be answered, along with other pertinent information. In this context, the ballot requests a simple "Yes" or "No" vote on the National Initiative for Democracy, plus information allowing verification of the voter's registration status together with data that can be used to contact the voter to confirm that his or her vote was accurately recorded. * Campaign An operation or related set of operations pursued to accomplish a political purpose. In this context it refers to all of the activities conducted by any citizen or group of citizens together with all the resources applied by them to the goal of enacting or defeating an initiative. * Certify/'certification' To confirm formally as to truth, accuracy, or genuineness; to guarantee as having met a standard. In this context citizens who vote to enact a National Initiative will certify their status as registered voters. * Citizen A person entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation; in particular, one entitled to vote and enjoy other privileges. * Coerce To force to act in a certain way by use of pressure, threats, or intimidation. * Election In this context, the entire process, and the infrastructure supporting that process, by which votes are cast and tabulated to determine whether or not an initiative has been approved or rejected by the voters. * File ' (an initiative) An initiative is filed when the Sponsor(s) submit(s) the initiative to the people for its perfection and approval. * '''Government ' (national, or federal) The governing body that is defined by and draws its authority from the Constitution of the United States. * '''Initiative The legislative instrument chosen by the voting citizens of the United States to exercise their inherent power to enact or modify any governmental policy, law, charter, or constitution; as set forth in the Democracy Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. * Initiative Process Infrastructure and procedures by which legislation may be introduced and enacted directly by the people. * Lawmaker/'Legislator' One who makes or enacts laws. In this context, either a member of an elected legislative body such as Congress, a state legislature, or a city council; or a citizen eligible to vote in the Legislature of the People. * Legislation A legislative resolution or statute law produced by a legislature. * Legislative Body An elected group of individuals having the power to create, amend and repeal laws together with the policies, procedures and infrastructure established by and under a governing constitution or charter. * Legislative Resolution A formal expression of the opinion or "will" of a legislative body. * Legislature An officially elected or otherwise selected body of people vested with the responsibility and power to make laws for a political unit, such as a state or nation. * Legislature of the People The body of citizens who are eligible to vote in an election conducted by the Electoral Trust, which administers the policies, procedures and infrastructure established by and under the authority of the Democracy Amendment and the Democracy Act. * National Initiative Short title for the National Initiative For Democracy, or an Initiative as undertaken under the Democracy Amendment. * National Initiative for Democracy The Democracy Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the Democracy Act, packaged together for concurrent presentation to the citizens of the United States in a national election. * Opponent (of an initiative) Any person who attempts, by any action, including but not limited to the contribution of funds, services, or other resources to be used for the creation or dissemination of information, to advocate that a qualified initiative be defeated at election. * Proponent (of an initiative) Any person who attempts, by any action, including but not limited to the contribution of funds, services, or other resources to be used for the creation or dissemination of information, to advocate that a qualified initiative be enacted at election. * Qualify (an initiative) To qualify for election, that is to begin the processing of the initiative that leads to its enactment or defeat in an election by registered voters, an initiative must meet criteria established by this Democracy Act. * Registered Voter In this context, any citizen of the United States who is at least 18 years old, who has registered once in his or her lifetime, is not imprisoned for a felony, and who has not been classified as "incompetent" by a court, provided that he or she has not renounced or otherwise given up United States citizenship. * Registrar The official charge with registering voters, typically the County Clerk of the county within which a voter resides. * Signature, Electronic "Electronic signature" is a generic, technology-neutral term that refers to the result of any of the various methods by which one can "sign" an electronic document. Examples of electronic signatures include: a digitized image of a handwritten signature, a secret code or personal identification number (PIN) (such as are used with ATM cards and credit cards) or a unique biometrics-based identifier, such as a fingerprint or a retinal scan. A separate act must specify and/or implement electronic signature technology to be used by voters who choose to submit ballots signed electronically before they may do so. * Signature, Manual A person's name or equivalent mark written in the person's own handwriting. * Sovereign When used as a noun: one who, singly or in company with others, possesses supreme authority in a nation or other governmental unit. When used as an adjective: self-governing; independent; possessing highest authority and jurisdiction. * Sponsor A person, or a group of individually identified people, responsible for the submission of an initiative to the Electoral Trust for qualification and processing. * Statute Law An enactment by a legislative body, e.g., laws, resolutions and ordinances. * The People of the United States The introductory phrase of the Democracy Act begins with the phrase "Be It Enacted By The People Of The United States." In this context the term "People of the United States" is used for consistency with our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Jfmxl 21:12, 7 February 2008 (UTC)